A federal agency has plans to open most of Ohio's Blue Rock State Forest in Muskingum County to fracking, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

The proposal, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management website, would open 4,525 acres of mineral rights beneath the 4,578-acre state forest and two townships for bids from oil and gas companies during a Dec. 12 public sale.

The Los Angeles Times reports that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials in the Philadelphia office did not agree with Washington, D.C., on the threat to ground water in Dimock in northeast Pennsylvamia.

Medina, Ohio. Fracking is now responsible for 90 percent of domestic oil and gas production, with thousands of wells popping up across the nation. The number of wells is expected to skyrocket during the next two decades. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 requires the safe disposal of solid waste and hazardous materials. In 1980, RCRA was amended to exempt waste from the production and development of oil and natural gas ("exploration & production" waste), so these 'fracking' wastes are not considered hazardous as a result.

The Marcellus Drilling News reports that ethane from western Pennsylvania has been shipped to an Ontario cracker plant.

Texas-based Range Resources on July 21 reported its first deliveries of ethane via the Mariner West pipeline were made to Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. This is the first time ethane has made it to a processing (cracker) plant.

A new, third layer of shale deep beneath the surface of western Pennsylvania is showing promise as a source of natural gas.

It might not prove to be as lucrative as the Marcellus or Utica shales, but CONSOL Energy Inc. says it is thrilled by the Upper Devonian rocks, a mixture of shale and sandstone layers that could become an added energy source.

There is limited drilling in the Upper Devonian shale formation in southeast Ohio.

A total of 125 wells have been drilled in seven counties in the past two years, mostly by Oxford Oil Co. LLC, said Steve Opritza of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management.

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
EQT Corporation
(NYSE: EQT) today announced the Company's 2013 capital expenditure (CAPEX) forecast of
$1.5 billion
. The CAPEX forecast includes
$1.15 billion
for
EQT Production
,
$320 million
for
EQT Midstream
, and
$45 million
for distribution infrastructure projects and other corporate items. The forecast does not include CAPEX for
EQT Midstream Partners, LP
(NYSE: EQM), which is a publicly traded entity controlled by
EQT Corporation
and consolidated in its financial statements. Funding will be provided by cash-on-hand at year-end, cash generated from operations, and proceeds from expected midstream asset sales (dropdowns) to
EQT Midstream Partners, LP
.

A two-year moratorium on oil and gas fracking within the city of Loveland will be on the November ballot in Colorado.

The advocacy group Protect Our Loveland turned in nearly 4,000 signatures and City Clerk Terry Andrews said Tuesday that the petitions meet requirements for the ballot.

According to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, the proposed ordinance would place a two-year moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, to extract oil and gas within city limits.

Scientific advisers were on the hot seat Wednesday during a congressional hearing to examine the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approach to research on health and safety implications of hydraulic fracturing.

Baker Hughes, the world’s third-largest provider of hydraulic-fracturing services, said the U.S. Justice Department is seeking documents for an antitrust investigation related to the fracturing market.

Shale and other clay-rich rock formations might offer permanent disposal solutions for spent nuclear fuel, according to a new paper by the U.S. Geological Survey.
There is currently about 70,000 metric tons of this spent fuel in temporary storage across the United States.

Kansas utility regulators are considering new rules to require oil and natural gas companies to disclose some information about the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing, but representatives of an environmental group said Monday that the regulations wouldn’t go far enough.

The places in the United States with extensive and growing fracking of shale are among the most upwardly mobile regions in the nation, reports the Via Meadia blog at The American Interest.

"A fascinating map of American income mobility has been making the blogging rounds today. The map is based on a study that the NYT notes is being hailed as 'the most detailed portrait yet of income mobility in the United States.' The study found that metro areas with greater income heterogeneity had greater social mobility," Via Meadia writes.

"95% of Carroll County residents rely on private water wells for their potable and agricultural needs. Coal mining and shale gas drilling in a single geographic area at this magnitude has never been seen in Ohio and many residents are expressing concern about the safety of that intersection." said Paul Feezel, Chair of Carroll Concerned Citizens.

Members of the press are encouraged to attend this important ODNR meeting that may be the last opportunity for citizens to influence ODNR's view that intensive coal mining literally at the same time there is intensive shale gas drilling is a good idea.

The meeting will be held this Wednesday July 24 at the Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall located at 89 Canyon Road SW Carrollton Ohio 44615. It begins at 5 pm.

Through the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), the state of Colorado is now party to two cases against hydraulic fracturing restrictions enacted by Colorado cities, Denver Business Journal reports.

From the ShaleOhio blog of Bricker & Eckler, the Columbus-based law firm:

During a public forum at Eastern Gateway Community College in Steubenville last week, Rich Cochran, president and CEO of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy (WRLC), said that oil and gas resources in the Utica shale play are being developed in the context of a fight, which prohibits communities from employing cooperative, creative solutions to drilling concerns, The Herald-Star reports.

Since early 2012, the Park Foundation has provided more than $2 million to groups opposed to hydraulic fracturing or fracking, and that efforts is starting to have an impact, reports Gannett's Albany Bureau.

One of the largest natural gas pipelines ever built in the United States will be made bidirectional to transport natural gas from Ohio to the Midwest and potentially to the West.

The Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) was previously used to ship natural gas from Colorado and Wyoming to Ohio. But the shale boom in Ohio and Pennsylvania has reduced the demand for natural gas shipped east in the pipeline.

An environmental group has filed a notice of intent to file a lawsuit against Waste Treatment Corporation for alleged illegal discharge of oil and gas drilling wastewater into the Allegheny River.

Clean Water Action, a grassroots organization that advocates for clean water and decreased pollution, issued a press release on Thursday announcing the intent to file suit, claiming, in part, that WTC has "violated their water discharge permit nearly 400 times since 2010" and also has no permit from the state of Pennsylvania authorizing them to discharge oil and gas wastewater.

Youngstown, Ohio, July 19, 2013 – They’re back and more determined than ever to win on election day in November 2013. The Youngstown, Ohio, Community Bill of Rights Committee is coordinating a new door-to-door campaign to get the required number of registered Youngstown voter signatures to put a question on the November ballot.

A landmark federal study on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, shows no evidence that chemicals from the natural gas drilling process moved up to contaminate drinking water aquifers at a western Pennsylvania drilling site, the Department of Energy told the Associated Press.

In letters to all lessors dated July 1, 2013, Newfield Appalachia PA, LLC, advised "…Newfield and Hess have elected to release your lease, thus your lease will not be continued into the development phase. Pursuant to the terms of the lease, this letter is notice that Newfield and Hess will file of record a Release of Lease in the offices of the Clerk of County in which the property resides."

Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS), which started the fight against gas drilling on the East Coast, has obtained several of these letters and the AP has written that all lessors in the area have received them.The complete extent of the withdrawal will be official soon, since changes to leases must be recorded within 30 days.

"There is considerable speculation concerning the reasons," said Barbara Arrindell, Director of DCS, "but various economic factors may loom large in this decision. Among them may be the extremely high cost of drilling; possible meager gas production; the precipitous downward production decline rate; major stockholders' discontent with Hess and its risky "scattershot approach to investment" and the continued low price of "dry" gas (gas that has no light oils or ʻnatural gas liquidsʼ in it). Additionally, there may b e distinct tax advantages to Hess dumping the leases while it faces mounting business challenges, to say nothing of the public relations nightmare facing the industry with HBOʼs airing of Gasland 2, Josh Foxʼs latest exposé."

Josh Fox, the creator of the films Gasland and Gasland 2 said, "I can't believe it and I can't stop crying. The companies that leased 80,000 acres in my township, in the upper Delaware River Basin are LEAVING. CANCELING ALL THE LEASES. WE ARE FREE. THANK YOU ALL FRACTIVISTS. THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THIS AMAZING VICTORY. WE WIN! AND WE WON'T STOP UNTIL WE WIN EVERYWHERE. I'm speechless. This proves that people, organized and passionate can actually win sometimes. In the grand scheme of things, this is a small victory, but it's HUGE. It's the Upper Delaware."

"Yet," continued Arrindell, "there can be little doubt that this decision also reflects an industry realization that it made a fundamental miscalculation. Even after being limited to only three exploratory wells (now plugged), Hess failed to observe that an educated public was unwilling to accept the industryʼs false rhetoric. The claims of environmental safety and supposed benefits to local businesses and workers were recognized as both false and overlooking greater costs to the local economy and quality of life. Unlike the government in Pennsylvania and some other states where protecting the public interest is not taken seriously, the Delaware River Basin Commission is taking a properly cautious regulatory approach. Newfield and Hess could not adjust their investment and management plans to that approach."

In fact, Carol Collier, Director of the Delaware River Basin Commission, recently wrote, "All members of the Basin community have a common interest in ensuring that the potential introduction of an industrial activity in the drainage area to these waters occurs only in a manner that does not cause a substantial adverse effect on the outstanding value and vital ecological functions that these waters provide."

"This is not a surprising decision," remarked Al Appleton, a former New York City Commissioner of Environmental Protection and an international expert on sustainable management of landscapes and water resources and a technical advisor on gas fracking to many organizations, including DCS. "The industryʼs economic calculations about the profitability of gas fracking assume that they can treat the environmental, public health, and landscape concerns that gas fracking raises as unimportant and not worthy of significant financial commitment. If these companies had to pay the costs of the damage to the environment, public health, and economic viability of rural landscapes, it would be a far less profitable, but far better business model. Fortunately, in the Pennsylvania portion of the Delaware River Basin, an enormously important environmental resource for over twenty million people, an aroused and aware public, and a responsible regulator have forced the industry to face th ose costs. This is an important milestone on the path to economic and environmental sustainability, one that Pennsylvania and New York, as well as the United States, are all committed to and must follow. The rule for the future must be that businesses cannot depend on shortcutting environmental and public health concerns as a path to profit. Today, the energy market has had to take a small, but important step towards recognizing the mistake of basing economic strategy on environmentally unsustainable practices."

Ms. Arrindell declared, "DCS celebrates the Delaware Basin being a little bit cleaner today after these companies have finally faced economic and environmental reality. We should all drink a glass of our clean Delaware water in celebration!"

One lessor affected by Hessʼs decision remarked that she was "very happy...Now the work begins educating the other people who made the decision to lease in the first place. This is a huge win for the Delaware River Valley. I just had to share...Thanks to all the grass-roots organizations for your tireless effort to stop the drill."

EvenNew York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recognized the extraordinary efforts and results of citizensʼ protests in New York. Schneiderman said Tuesday at a Post-Standard editorial board meeting, "They have out-organized the oil and gas industry. That's impressive."

Joe Levine, DCS co-founder added, "Fracking is intrinsically contaminating and regulations cannot make it safe. This is likely not the last weʼll see of the threatening gas extractors who, with the help of federal, state, and local governments, came to steal our resources and property rights. I think the water contamination and community degradation across PA is catching up with the industry lies that claim drilling is good for us. This feels like a David and Goliath moment. Thank God we still have our water. We regret that so many families across PA cannot say the same."

DCS says it will continue the fight to keep drilling out of the Delaware River Basin. It seeks to protect everyoneʼs rights to clean water and air and a life free from the industrialized, scorched earth that accompanies fracking. In addition, DCS is looking to lead the way towards the renewable energy, no- carbon future that is the real hope for long-term environmental and economic health.

Hess put its Honesdale, PA office up for sale last January and is sending Letters of Release to its leaseholders in Wayne County, PA. (Photo: Pat Carullo)

To learn more about Damascus Citizens for Sustainability please go to http://www.myprgenie.com/company/profile/damascus-citizens-for-sustainability.

Pittsburgh, PA (July 15, 2013) – EQT Corporation (NYSE: EQT) and EQT Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: EQM) today announced that EQT Midstream Partners has agreed to acquire EQT Corporation’s (EQT) wholly owned subsidiary, Sunrise Pipeline, LLC (Sunrise), for $507.5 million cash and $32.5 million of common and general partners units. EQT Midstream Partners (Partnership) also agreed to pay additional consideration of $110 million to EQT upon the effectiveness of a new transportation agreement with a third-party that the Partnership expects to become effective post-closing. In addition, the Partnership announced a $0.40 cash distribution per unit for the second quarter 2013, which represents a $0.03 or 8% increase over the first quarter 2013 cash distribution per unit.

From the West Virginia Natural gas blog from the law firm of Lewis Glasser Casey & Rollins:

For the past two years, the W. Va. Legislature and the W. Va. Department of Environmental Protection (“WVDEP”) have been focused on developing and implementing new regulations regarding horizontal natural gas wells.

Ravenna-based Beck Energy Corp. may ask the 7th District Court of Appeals in Youngstown to hear a class-action lawsuit filed by hundreds of landowners with property spanning across 21,000 acres in Ohio's Monroe County, The (Youngstown) Vindicator reports.

Last month, Bloomberg News had an interesting report on how drillers have settled contamination complaints with neighbors in numerous states, often with confidentiality agreements that keep the settlements secret.

Fremont Center, NY – July 16, 2013 – A draft executive order that would make the protection of water supplies a national priority and move the nation toward a cleaner energy future is being submitted today to the White House for the consideration of President Obama. The order was written by theCommittee for an American Clean Energy Agenda (ACEA), which represents 120 citizen organizations with nearly 2 million members in 33 states and the District of Columbia. It would require: (1) the completion of a long-overdue national water census; (2) the creation of a “U.S. Water Budget”; and (3) a plan to shift to clean energy supplies in key watersheds identified by the US Geological Survey. The executive order can be found at http://www.americancleanenergyagenda.org/news/

WASHINGTON, D.C. – July 16, 2013 – A detailed executive order making water a major national priority and moving the nation to a clean energy future is being submitted today to the White House for the consideration of President Obama.

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2013 – API Director of Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito announced the launch of a new ad in the campaign that seeks to promote the facts about hydraulic fracturing.

“This campaign reflects API’s commitment to addressing the public’s concerns about hydraulic fracturing, because safe oil and natural gas development means thousands of reliable, well-paying jobs to families across the country,” said Milito. “The United States is becoming a global energy-leader because of an abundance of energy from shale, which is also making a significant contribution to the economy, and reducing our carbon emissions to near 20-year lows.”

The new television, print, radio and online ads began circulating yesterday in Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The ads feature the Kern family who live on a ranch in Ault, Colorado, raising cattle. The land has been in their family for five generations and they researched the hydraulic fracturing process before allowing operations on their property. The Kerns experience has been that hydraulic fracturing is safe for the land, water and air.

Shale energy production has created tens of millions of dollars in additional revenues for federal, state and local governments, helped American consumers save an average of $926 annually per household, and supported more than 1.75 million jobs in 2012, according to research firm IHS Global Insight.

“Whether you drive a car, or heat your home, virtually every American is participating in this new energy revolution,” said Milito. “It is important to talk about the energy choices we face for our future, and these ads are another step in our efforts to engage the American public. We believe a better informed public leads to better decisions for our future.”

API is a national trade association that represents all segments of America’s technology-driven oil and natural gas industry. Its more than 500 members – including large integrated companies, exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms – provide most of the nation’s energy. The industry also supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers $85 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested over $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

What a difference a year makes. Last August, RBN Energy President Rusty Braziel said the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX), which originates in Rio Blanco County, Colorado and sends gas to Monroe County, Ohio, was in danger of drying up because there’s so much shale gas coming from the Marcellus. His prescription? Turn it around and send gas the other way (see REX NatGas Pipeline Faces Stiff Competition from Marcellus). Looks like REX has taken Rusty’s advice.

Westlake, Louisiana, (USA)– Sasol today announced a series of engineering and technology provider appointments as it continues to advance front-end engineering and design (FEED) of its world class ethane cracker and derivatives project.

WASHINGTON, July 11, 2013 – A new study released today shows the harmful impacts that would result from repealing the tax deduction for intangible drilling costs (IDCs), API Director of Tax and Accounting Policy Stephen Comstock told reporters this morning.

COLUMBUS- Today, The Science Journal published a report that details the increase in earthquakes due to the deep well injection of fracking wastewater. Author William L. Ellsworth of the USGS Earthquake Science Center reviewed the troubling connections between injection wells and the peak of human-induced seismic activity in 2011. From the findings comes a recommendation for a clearer, more scientific regulatory structure to oversee oil and gas operations. Upon reviewing the discoveries, Rep. Robert F. Hagan (D-Youngstown)-- who introduced legislation to temporarily ban injection wells-- issued the following statement.

From the ShaleOhio blog of Bricker & Eckler, a Columbus-based law firm:

A recent article featured on The Motley Fool describes two technologies other than hydraulic fracturing that are helping the shale boom by "taking away a lot of the guesswork, leading to improved returns and more certainty."

Portage County injected enough drilling wastes deep into the ground in 2012 to fill a train of tanker cars that would stretch nearly 37 miles from downtown Akron to the center of Garrettsville.

State records show that Portage was No. 1 in Ohio last year for waste injections, delivering 2,358,371 million barrels of brine and other wastes into 15 active wells — nearly two-thirds of it from out of state. The volume grew 18.7 percent from 1,986,653 barrels in 2011.

Injection wells can be developed from a formerly producing gas or oil well, an exploratory well or drilled specifically for underground disposal.

They are drilled into porous rock formations far below aquifers to a depth of 4,000 to 13,000 feet. The rock formation is always below an impermeable layer of rock or clay to ensure that injected fluids remain in the injection zone.

This week, the legendary comic strip Dick Tracy began an on-going storyline on GoComics.com about fracking. Writer Mike Curtis and illustrator Joe Staton pen the cartoon, using Wheaton Farm as the subject for a relentless Mr. Hy Pressure who is determined to lease the family’s land to the fracking industry.

Michael Behar at Mother Jones says the oil and gas industry is trying to stay quiet regarding the link between injecting frack wastewater deep underground and the increase in earthquakes in the areas around the injection sites.

Behar: "Operators are injecting more water than ever into drilling wells, while boring new wells to accommodate the overflow. Yet nobody really knows how all this water will impact faults, or just how big an earthquake it could spawn. In the West, small quakes don't often cause much damage because of stricter seismic regulations but also because the underground formations—buckled, with younger rock—absorb all but the biggest events. Induced quakes, however, are happening primarily in flatter states, amid more rigid rock, making them more destructive—a stone makes a bigger splash when it's hurled into a glassy pond than a river of raging whitewater."

From ShaleOhio blog by the Columbus-based law firm of Bricker & Eckler:

A new report by Texas-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes reveals that although the availability and low cost of shale oils have made them "appealing as refinery feedstocks," their highly variable quality can make processing them difficult.

A dispute with Dominion is prompting Trumbull County officials to expand the county's road use maintenance agreement policy to include all oil and gas-related projects, reports WFMJ.com.

The county previously only required companies drilling horizontal wells to enter into such a contract, but county officials decided to include related projects after they disagreed with Dominion about the damage done to Fisher Cornith Road in Johnston Township as a result of the company's construction of a compressor station, the article said.

Via Meadia, the blog at The American Interest, takes note of a Financial Times story reporting that growing American shale oil and gas production continues to shake up global energy powers, particularly OPEC.

Via Meadia: "American shale has been a double whammy for OPEC. On the one hand, it has cut into OPEC’s market share in the US. American production has also increased the global oil supply, which has caused prices to fall. If OPEC wants prices to stay high, it will need to cut back production—something several of its countries can’t afford to do. Those countries need the revenue from oil production, meaning OPEC will continue to produce and prices will fall. All in all, this is good news for shale, and great news for America."

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett on Wednesday defended legislation he signed into law this week that critics say will undercut some landowners in lease negotiations with Marcellus shale gas drillers, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The new law, which was tacked onto legislation to clarify information on gas royalty payments, empowers oil and gas drillers to combine land into larger drilling units as long as a property owner's lease doesn't prohibit it.

WASHINGTON, July 10, 2013 ─ API Group Director for Upstream and Industry Operations Erik Milito praised the bipartisan leadership of 34 Senators, who called for an expeditious review of applications for U.S. LNG export facilities ahead of global competition to meet growing demand for natural gas.

“Bipartisan support in Congress continues to grow for expediting the review of LNG exports. Numerous studies have determined that expanding LNG exports to serve expanding markets will produce significant economic benefits for American consumers, drive economic growth and more government revenues.

HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 07/11/13 -- Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation (NYSE: MHR) (NYSE MKT: MHR.PRC) (NYSE MKT: MHR.PRD) (NYSE MKT: MHR.PRE) ("Magnum Hunter" or the "Company") announced today that the Company has appointed Joseph C. Daches as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective July 22, 2013. Ronald Ormand, the Company's current Chief Financial Officer, will continue with the Company as Executive Vice President-Finance and assume an additional role as Head of Capital Markets.

WASHINGTON - July 9 - A coalition of local, regional, and national groups sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) today underscoring further scientific evidence that supports their opposition to the proposed Dominion Cove Point LNG export terminal on the Chesapeake Bay. The letter alerts FERC to the latest hurricane forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), revealing that the area will be subject to increasingly strong storms this season. In another report sent to FERC, a panel of 21 scientists commissioned by Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley predicts rising seas of more than 2 feet along the state's shoreline in the next 40 years—and perhaps nearly 6 feet by the end of the century. An additional report on climate adaptation prepared by the IPIECA, a global oil and gas industry association, highlights the growing consensus that industry must address and respond to climate change in planning infrastructure projects.

With U.S. crude oil production at the highest level in two decades, outstripping pipeline capacity, the United States is relying more on railroads to move its new crude oil to refineries and storage centers. The amount of crude oil and refined petroleum products transported by rail totaled close to 356,000 carloads during the first half of 2013, up 48% from the same period in 2012, according to Association of American Railroads (AAR).

The Amish people in Ohio and Pennsylvania have their own conflicted feelings and beliefs when it comes to fracking the Utica and Marcellus shales that lie deep under their properties, The Associated Press reports.

The AP: "In parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania where horse-drawn buggies clip-clop at the pace of a bygone era, Amish communities are debating a new temptation: the large cash royalties that can come with the boom in oil and gas drilling.

The Via Meadia blog at The American Interest doesn't think highly of Josh Fox's new Gasland II documentary on fracking.

Via Meadia: "... Gasland II is chock-full of errors and falsehoods. Some might be unintentional (Fox readily admits that he’s a 'theater guy,' not an engineer or chemist), but at least one seems to be a case of deceit.

The deadly Quebec train accident is bringing new scrutiny to the growing use of rail to carry oil long distances and prompting worries that the higher volume being moved by rail will mean more accidents.

Rail proponents saying moving oil by rail is safe, but critics argue that pipelines are safer.

WASHINGTON, July 8, 2013 – Oil well drilling trends continue to rise in the second quarter of 2013 with total oil well completions up 9 percent (to 8,739 wells) from 2012 second quarter figures, according to API's 2013 Quarterly Well Completion Report: Second Quarter.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) welcomed a decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that will stop the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) implementation of Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act. API and a coalition of concerned business groups challenged the anti-competitive rule.

Twelve activists who blocked a North Carolina chemical plant were arrested in a protest against the company’s sale of products used in the natural gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The latest scam by climate skeptic Phelim McAleer is a YouTube video purporting to undermine the Lipsky case featured in "Gasland Part II." Steve and Shyla Lipsky’s water supply was contaminated by methane and benzene as a result of nearby fracking operations carried out by gas company Range Resources. But Mr. McAleer leaves out a few important details, namely the facts. Here’s what really happened, as corroborated by the Associated Press, in the investigation of U.S. EPA official documents from the state regulatory agency with oversight over oil and gas, Range Resources’ own admissions and the Lipskys' personal horror story:

Ronald Bailey at Reason.com is not happy that HBO is running Gasland Part II, the docudrama sequel to Gasland by anti-fracking activist and director Josh Fox.

Bailey: " ... No doubt to the dismay of activists, President Barack Obama appears to endorse the process. ... The president gets it, but a lot of activists don't. To help bring them around, I thought I'd take a look at some of the misleading claims made by opponents of fracking. Fortunately I just got a fundraising letter from fine folks at foodandwaterwatch (FWW) urging me to sign and send in a petition to the president to ban fracking. The letter is a nice compendium of anti-fracking scaremongering."

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — In another sign that natural gas is outpacing costlier heating oil, a Texas energy company is proposing to install new pipelines, replace others and build transmission stations in the heavily populated, 200-mile New York-to-Boston corridor.

The Pennsylvania House member who sponsored amendments that would make it easier for energy companies in Pennsylvania to combine land leased for gas drilling said that he did not know who wrote the provision or where the idea came from.

Big energy companies have been trying for five years to tap the riches of the Marcellus Shale in southern New York, promising thousands of new jobs, economic salvation for a depressed region, and a cheap, abundant, clean-burning source of fuel close to power-hungry cities. But for all its political clout and financial prowess, the industry hasn't been able to get its foot in the door.

Last month, the EPA abruptly withdrew its multi-billion-dollar investigation into water contamination in Pavillion, Wy. -- shocking environmentalists and energy industry supporters alike -- in a move that critics say shows the agency is "systematically disengaging" from any research that could be perceived as questioning the safety of fracking or oil drilling.

The agency has maintained publicly that it remains committed to an ongoing national study of hydraulic fracturing, ProPublica's Abrahm Lustgarten reports; however, in private conversations, high-ranking EPA officials acknowledge that "fierce pressures from the drilling industry and its powerful allies on Capitol Hill -- as well as financial constraints and a delicate policy balance sought by the White House -- is squelching their ability to scrutinize not only the effects of oil and gas drilling, but other environmental protections as well."

Just in the past 15 months, the EPA has closed an investigation into groundwater pollution in Dimock, Pa., abandoned its claim that a driller in Parker County, TX was responsible for methane gas bubbling up in residents' faucets (even though a geologist hired by the agency confirmed this finding), and failed to enforce a statutory ban on using diesel fuel in fracking, Lustgarten writes. This pretty much leaves the EPA's highly anticipated national study as its only remaining research into the effects of fracking -- which conveniently ignores Pavillion, Dimock, and Parker County -- and it's not expected before sometime in 2016, the last full year of President Obama's term.

An article featured in the latest issue of the online publication Ohio State Law Journal Furthermore explores "three ways in which unconventional petroleum development has begun to force the systematic production and recording of data, which could lead to broad information forcing efforts," including efforts to collect baseline contamination data, certain requirements for disclosure during development, and post-development sampling and impact studies.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT–(Marketwired – June 24, 2013) - Transfac Capital, Inc., a specialty finance company providing accounts receivable financing to small and mid-sized companies, today announced the expansion of its presence into the Utica and Marcellus Shale fields. Tanya Boczek, Business Development Manager of Transfac Capital, will lead business development efforts in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia pursuing relationships within the oil and gas industry.

OKLAHOMA CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 3, 2013-- Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) announced the execution of agreements to sell assets in the Northern Eagle Ford Shale and Haynesville Shale to EXCO Operating Company, LP a subsidiary of EXCO Resources, Inc. (NYSE:XCO) (“EXCO”) for aggregate proceeds of approximately $1.0 billion, of which approximately 90% will be received upon closing. Payment of the remaining proceeds will be subject to customary post-closing contingencies. The transactions, which are subject to certain closing conditions, are expected to close in the 2013 third quarter.

HOUSTON, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 07/02/13 -- Magnum Hunter Resources Corporation (NYSE: MHR) (NYSE MKT: MHR.PRC) (NYSE MKT: MHR.PRD) (NYSE MKT: MHR.PRE) (the "Company" or "Magnum Hunter") announced today that it has spud its first well on the Stalder Pad site located in eastern Monroe County, Ohio. This pad has been designed and permitted to drill up to 18 gross wells (10 Marcellus and 8 Utica), and will be drilled using the Company's new Schramm T500XD robotic drilling rig. The first well drilled on this multi-well pad site will test the Marcellus formation and the second well on this pad will test the Utica formation. Triad Hunter, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, is operating the well and owns a 50% working interest in this drilling unit. The development plan is to drill both Utica and Marcellus wells first, then fracture stimulate them, and subsequently test the wells sometime during the fourth quarter of 2013. The Company's midstream subsidiary, Eureka Hunter Pipeline, LLC, is currently laying a new 20" high pressure gas line to the Stalder Pad with first deliveries from this area anticipated in October of this year.

FREMONT CENTER, NY —Today, one hundred and thirty environmental and public advocacy groups sent a letter to the Maritime Administration asking that the public be given more time to consider and comment on a propose liquefied natural gas (LNG) port that would be constructed in the waters off Long Island and the Jersey Shore. After the application was announced on June 14, the project sponsor subsequently released fifteen hundred pages of a four thousand plus page application that federal agencies have found to be still incomplete in more than one hundred and fifty specific areas. Despite the length, technical complexity, and incomplete nature of the material, the public is required to read, analyze and meaningfully comment on the application by July 23.

OKLAHOMA CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 1, 2013-- Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) today announced it completed its previously announced Mississippi Lime joint venture with Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation (Sinopec) on June 28, 2013. The company sold a 50% undivided interest in approximately 850,000 acres in northern Oklahoma for total consideration of $1.02 billion in cash, of which approximately 93% was received upon closing. Payment of the remaining proceeds is subject to customary post-closing contingencies.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, June 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Valerus (www.valerus.com), one of the world's leading providers of integrated oil and gas handling and processing solutions, held a ribbon cutting yesterday with Youngstown-basedBrilex Industries (www.brilex.com), celebrating their partnership to manufacture Valerus production equipment at the Brilex facility for deployment throughout the region. Valerus and Brilex employees welcomed state and local civic leaders, business leaders and members of the media to share how their partnership will impact the Youngstown economy and help support the region's Marcellus and Utica oil and gas industry.

The mayor of a Pennsylvania city where a gas explosion killed five people two years ago is urging fellow officials to be proactive about making sure that pipelines and other infrastructure in their communities are safe.